Numerous types of analytical instruments are well known and widely used in many settings. Common examples of such instruments include molecular spectroscopy instruments, thermal and elemental analysis instruments, inorganic analysis instruments, chromatography instruments, and numerous others. Such instruments can often be found in research laboratories, universities, medical laboratories, and in many other locations.
Traditionally, analytical instruments included some integrated type of user interface which allowed a user to control operation of the instrument and to observe instrument output. However, this arrangement suffered from a number of disadvantages. One such disadvantage was that the interface, being an integral part of the instrument, was not easily modified or upgradeable. If it was desired to upgrade the interface in any significant way, it was often necessary to replace the entire interface. Another disadvantage was that, although the integrated interfaces may have allowed for some rudimentary storage and manipulation of output data, such functions were typically severely limited.
With the advent of the personal computer, these disadvantages were obviated by interfacing analytical instruments with an instrument controller computer rather than or in addition to the integrated interface. The user interface could then comprise computer software executing on the instrument controller computer. This allowed for the provision of more complex instrument operations as well as facilitating the storage and manipulation of output data. Connecting the instrument to an instrument control computer having instrument interface software executing thereon also provided the benefit of allowing the instrument control interface to be easily modified or updated simply by updating the software. However, such arrangements still suffered from a number of disadvantages. One of such disadvantages was that the instrument could only be controlled by, and the instrument output data could only by viewed on, the particular instrument control computer directly connected to the instrument.
It was discovered that this and other disadvantages could be obviated if the instrument controller computer was connected to a network of computers. Referring to FIG. 1, a known network 10 incorporating an instrument controller computer 12 is shown. Instrument controller computer 12 generally comprises a CPU, a memory, and various input and output devices, as is commonly known. One or more analytical instruments 14, 16, 18 are directly connected to instrument controller computer 12 by way of some hard-wired connection, such as a serial or parallel connection. Executing on instrument controller computer 12 is instrument interface software. The instrument interface software is used to control each of analytical instruments 14, 16, 18 connected to instrument controller computer 12. More specifically, instrument interface software receives user input, for example, by receiving commands via keystrokes, menus, icons, etc., and translates this user input into control signals which are transmitted to the appropriate one of analytical instruments 14, 16, 18 by way of the hard-wired connection. The instrument interface software also receives signals output by each of analytical instruments 14, 16, 18 via the hard-wired connection, translates the signals into data useful to the user, and displays the data. The data may also be stored on an instrument database 20 connected to instrument controller computer 12.
It should be noted that the instrument interface software is typically unique to each instrument 14, 16, 18 being controlled. Thus, different software must be employed to control different types or even different models of instruments supplied by the same manufacturer and to control the same types of instruments supplied by different manufacturers. As such, the particular instrument cannot be controlled by instrument controller computer 12 unless the unique instrument interface software which is appropriate for the particular instrument desired to be controlled has been installed on instrument controller computer 12.
One or more additional computers 22, 24, 26 may be in communication with instrument controller computer 12 by a network connection 28, such as an intranet, a local area network (LAN), a wide area network (WAN), a virtual private network (VPN) or the like. Computers 22, 24, 26 may be used to control one or more of instruments 14, 16, 18 so long as computer 22, 24, 26 has the unique instrument interface software which is appropriate for the particular instrument desired to be controlled installed thereon. When such is the case, instruments 14, 16, 18 are controlled by computers 22, 24, 26 as described above with respect to instrument controller computer 12. More specifically, the instrument interface software executing on computers 22, 24, 26 receives commands via keystrokes, menus, icons, etc., and translates this user input into control signals which are transmitted to the appropriate one of analytical instruments 14, 16, 18 via network connection 28, instrument controller computer 12 and the hard-wired connection. The instrument interface software also receives signals output by each of analytical instruments 14, 16, 18 via the hard-wired connection, instrument controller computer 12 and network connection 28, translates the signals into data useful to the user, and displays the data.
Although network 10 allows a user to control instruments 14, 16, 18 using computers 22, 24, 26 other than instrument controller computer 12 directly connected to instruments 14, 16, 18, network 10 still suffers from a number of disadvantages. One such disadvantage is that any of computers 22, 24, 26 which are utilized to control instruments 14, 16, 18 must have the appropriate instrument interface software installed thereon. This is disadvantageous for a number of reasons. For example, it may be desirable for a user to be able to control an instrument from a computer which is not typically used for instrument control (e.g., from home or while traveling). It would be highly disadvantageous to require the user to install the appropriate instrument interface software on such computers. Moreover, when the instrument interface software is updated, network 10 would require that the instrument interface software be updated on each of the (possibly numerous) computers 22, 24, 26 on network 10 in addition to instrument controller computer 12. This would be a time-consuming and inefficient process.
What is desired, therefore, is an analytic instrument which incorporates remote monitoring and control features, which includes an interface which is easily modifiable or upgradeable, which facilitates storage and manipulation of output data, and which does not require that instrument interface software unique to the instrument be installed on computers used to remotely monitor and control the instrument.